Columbia School District
English/Language Arts
Write to be understood, speak to be heard, read to grow.
—Lawrence Clark Powell
The documents below list each grade's units of study, timelines, and a brief description of what students will be learning.
If you have any questions, please contact Literacy Coach Andrea Ortiz.
Wit & Wisdom
Wit & Wisdom is a comprehensive K-8 English/Language Arts (ELA) program. In addition to thorough coverage of Reading, Writing, and Language standards, hallmarks of the program include:
Thematic content-based modules: Students develop background knowledge and vocabulary while simultaneously learning reading and writing skills. Integrated approach: Reading and writing skills are closely linked in every module. Students learn and practice their writing skills while writing about, or in response to, what they have read.
Authentic texts: All the books, poems, and articles students encounter in this program are high-quality and authentic. There is a balance of literary and informational texts in each grade.
Connection to the Arts: Every module includes opportunities to explore visual art connected to the theme. Noticing, questioning, and analyzing art through a content lens builds background knowledge and supports students in using these skills while reading.
Digital platform: Resources from Wit & Wisdom’s online learning platform, In Sync, will be used to support continued learning and practice when students are at home.
ELA Curriculum Overviews
Fundations (K-3)
Fundations is a phonics program for students in K-3 classrooms with a systematic approach for teaching the foundational skills in reading and spelling. It is a structured multisensory program with an emphasis on explicitly teaching phonemic awareness, phonics, high frequency words, spelling, and vocabulary. Fundations is used within the general classroom daily and provides students with consistent routines to help them learn and strengthen their decoding and spelling skills. It uses an integrated approach to teaching skills so that daily lessons teach and then reinforce corresponding skills.
Helpful Fundations vocabulary:
Phonemic awareness is the ability to identify and manipulate individual sounds ( phonemes ) in spoken words.
Phonics is the way people learn to read by connecting sounds within words to letters or groups of letters in an alphabetic writing system.
Decoding is the ability to break apart words into smaller parts in order to accurately read and understand a word.
High frequency words are words which occur most frequently in written material, for example, "and", "the", "as" and "it". They are often words that have little meaning on their own, but they do contribute a great deal to the meaning of a sentence.